Writer – Peter David
Artist – Sal Velluto
Colours – Eugenio Mattozzi
Letters – Kenneth Bruzenak

After having to deal with the Singh Pirates, The Phantom is confronted by a man he does not know and as one might guess, the two end up having to battle which is fierce while it lasts. Thankfully, Diana Palmer, the Phantom’s wife, intervenes and manages to stop the two before it could escalate any farther. Unknown to The Phantom, Diana and this man named Jimmy Wells used to know each other in a former life and they seem like they might have been more than friends. It makes things a little bit awkward, to say the least. This new tale of The Phantom by Peter David and Sal Velluto keeps chugging along and they give it a very classic superhero feel which wraps its readers in familiarity. As such, there is a lot of action in the book, some misunderstandings and then a long conversation to hash it out between all the interested parties. Come the end of the issue, David also reintroduces a character from the Phantom’s past named the Baroness, a woman who is married to Jimmy and one whom he and Diana had no idea knew our hero. When a person thinks of old-school fun in comic books, this issue has it in spades and it is a welcome respite to what many companies release in this current age. While it might seem a little dated because of that, like it could have been published thirty or forty years ago, it is not necessarily a bad thing. The simple fact of the matter is that it really ups the enjoyment level of the story because it is like reading a lost tale from a favourite character. While the pirates do not make a return to this issue and Jimmy Wells is a man who bothers the Phantom the wrong way in more ways than one, for the moment, he has to deal with the Baroness, at least until this misunderstanding is put to the side as well. That of course, will have to wait until the next issue as the creators of this book leave it on a cliffhanger but it sparks enough interest to keep readers coming back for more. With some wonderful art by Velluto to accompany the prose that David supplies him with, this issue turned out to be just as good as the first and one has no doubt that future books will have the same quality and craftsmanship as those that preceded them.

3.5 out of 5